1. Field of The Invention
The invention relates to connector assembly, and particularly to the cable connector assembly using IDC (Insulative Displacement Contact) means for cooperation with an IDC like shunting bar for selectively connecting or shorting at least one set of specific contacts together.
2. The Related Art
Most I/O (Input/Output) cable connectors which, are generally different from the so-called flat cable connectors used on the interior of the computer, are used among the peripheries and computer, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,637. As well known, the cable connector contains a bunch of wires in the jacket of the cable and such I/O cable connector uses the traditional solder method to respectively solder the contacts to the corresponding wires. This soldering procedure takes time and labor, and costs money. Moreover, because the adjacent contacts are positioned close to each other, the solder may contaminate the adjacent contact/wire, thus resulting in the solder bridge between two adjacent contacts/wires and the corresponding undesired and incorrect circuits therebetween. Oppositely, sometimes some spaced specific contacts/wires should be grouped as one set by shorting together for meeting some required designed circumstances, that requires to intentionally short such contacts/wires together by soldering of the so-called jumper wires connected between every two of the selective contacts/wires. It also takes time and labor, and naturally costs money. Some U.S. patents disclose several different type shunt or jumper device incorporating some different type connectors for replacement of the complementary connectors during non-mating period of the subject connectors, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,602,834, 4,607,899, 4,997,390, 5,000,699, 5,391,096 and 5,609,493.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a cable connector assembly having a bunch of wires connected thereof, wherein the contacts of the connector are connected to the corresponding wires through IDC means and a unitary shunting bar having piercing means thereon cooperating with the selective wires thereabouts, so that the contacts of connector can be electrically connected to the corresponding wires through such IDC means and some designated contacts can be short-circuiting with each other through such piercing means.
Moreover, it is desired that the insulation displacement shunting bar is correctly placed within the cable connector assembly, i.e., to prevent any disorientation, which otherwise might occur during manual assembly of the insulation displacement shunting bar.